WATERLOO – Quincy Almeida, director of Laurier’s Sun Life Movement Disorders Research & Rehabilitation Centre (MDRC), has been chosen as the 2012 Early Career Distinguished Scholar by the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA).

The annual award recognizes the outstanding achievement of researchers who are still in the early stages of their scientific careers. The awards committee noted that Almeida’s productivity, the quality of his work, the quality of the journals in which he has published were factors in its decision.

“This award is fitting recognition of Quincy’s achievements in the area of Parkinson’s disease research,” said Dean of Science Paul Jessop. “Under his leadership, the MDRC has developed an international reputation for excellence.”

A professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, Almeida is an expert on movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. His research is focused on the neurocognitive and neuromotor mechanisms of how movements are planned, learned and controlled, with specific interest in dysfunctions originating in the brain’s basal ganglia.

Almeida is also the founder and director of the MDRC, where much of his research is conducted and applied. The MDRC is an internationally recognized centre that integrates motor control, rehabilitation and exercise science for the investigation and treatment of movement disorders.

“Hundreds of Laurier students have worked in our rehabilitation programs, and produced undergraduate and graduate theses as part of their work,” said Almeida. “It is the contributions of all those students and of our clients who participate in our research studies that made the work possible. This is really an award for the centre, and for Laurier.”

Almeida’s award was publicly announced today at the MDRC during an event to mark the lead-up to World Parkinson’s Day, held annually on April 11. The event featured a “human tulip” made up of 150 Parkinson’s supporters carrying red and white balloons in the shape of the “Parkinson tulip,” a cultivar developed by a horticulturalist with Parkinson’s that has become an international symbol of the disease.

The North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity is a multidisciplinary association of scholars from the behavioural sciences and related professions. The group works to advance the scientific study of human behavior in sport and physical activity.